Monday, March 25, 2013

Hey

This week flew by. Elder F. and I have been working like crazy. Out
of the 4 new people who went to church the other Sunday, 3 came again and all
have baptisimal dates for this weekend on the 30th! Their names are Sujei (30
something), Paola(18) and Melany(8). Melany's parents aren't members of the
church so she is a convert. She is also the little sister of Janni, who was
batpized last week. We've tried to get their mom to come to church but she
hasn't yet.

Things are looking pretty good. We are gonna work hard this week to get
our fechas in the water and confirmed this week. That would be 4 baptisms this
month, which would be pretty good.

We've really been working with the members a lot to help these people.
It's kinda hard when there are 8 missionaries all sharing one branch and there's
only so many church members who can really help. We are trying to bring members
to lessons and we organized a movie night that a member is gonna have. He
invited 2 investigators, one who has committed to baptism, to watch the
testaments. We had to help him with the refreshments and the movie.

Oh yeah, cool experience: In BV when it rains, the whole world stops.
Normally we have about 100 people every Sunday, but the Sundays it has rained we
had like 40 to 50 with 0 investigators. Last Sunday it was pouring rain in the
morning, so we all prayed as districts that either the rain could stop or the
people could have to courage to come to church in spite of the rain. Within 5
minutes of praying, the heavy rain was down to sprinkling, and within 10, it
stopped completely. Pretty sick (cool)!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Hey everyone

Last week went well. We had five investigators come to church and four of
those for the first time. We really worked hard with the members getting them
to call the investigators and get involved and it paid off. Also, Janni, who was
baptized last week, was able to get confirmed this Sunday.

Last week I saw something that kind of gave me a reality check. This one
girl we know named Faisuri showed me a letter she got from a girl in the US. I
looked at it and it was called "Releasing children from poverty in Jesus name."
It was basically where some girl in school in the US participated in a program
to write to a girl living somewhere in the world in poverty. If I were in high
school and we did something like that, I probably wouldn't have thought twice
about it. But reading that letter and seeing the pics of the 10 year old girl,
it just hit me that I'm on the other side . The girl in her letter was
talking about how she went to her grandmas and stuff, and drank apple cider.
And I am now for the first time seeing the other side. Faisuri will probably
never have the kind of life a girl has in the US. She lives in a wood house.
They all get there water from these pipes that spit out water only every two
days. They have to save up plastic bottles and fill them up there to have water
for the day. It was just kinda crazy to think about where I am and all
that

Other than that, things are going well here. 2 new missionaries arrived
here and we're 8 now in Buenaventura...all in the same ward. Elder E. from
my group is here now, which is pretty cool.

*From his personal email to his Dad regarding the recent
death of a close friend of ours:

"I remember Bro Billings was always happy and always made
people feel good when he was around them. And, that he was the only "old guy" I
knew who still had six-pack abs...ha-ha. The loss of life doesn't seem to make
sense sometimes. Someone told me once that sometimes life just throws you a
"poop-ball." Just know that he is in paradise and still the same guy and will
still be around when we all get there someday. I'm sure he's happy there
hanging out and I'm sure he's doing the same thing up there...making other
people happy and feel good. It's alright to be sad, but just know we'll all see
each other someday. Use it as motivation to stay strong in the gospel so we can
all reunite up there."

Monday, March 11, 2013

Hey

So
there were baptisms this week. Elder F. and I had one and the whole
district had five. Her name is Janni and she turned 16 on the day of her
baptism. It was pretty cool. Although the one thing that stinks is that we
went to go pick her up Sunday morning so she could come to her confirmation and
she a had fight with her mom and her mom wouldn't let her come. So we're just
really hoping she comes next Sunday to get confirmed.

Earlier this week we had the loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard in my entire life. And
it was in the middle of the night. There was one thunder so loud it woke up all
six of us at the same time. Elder Hogan thought they were bombs at first and I
thought it was the second coming. It was pretty scary.

It was pretty
cool this Sunday, we saw our convert David A. bless the
sacrament.

Anyways, so this morning the Elders here really wanted to
wrestle for some reason. They put a bunch of mattresses on the floor and tried
to get me to wrestle. I had already told them a million times that I'd wrestle,
but I wanted to find some grass or somewhere where there is space, but they kept
pressuring and I finally did it. We wrestled for probably about an hour and
during that our I re-ripped open part of my finger that I had cut in the fan
earlier last week. I also got one of my toenails ripped off. We finally
decided to stop when two of the mattresses got separated while I was wrestling
and one of the Elders whipped me backwards and I smacked my head super hard on
the tile. It hurt pretty bad haha. It felt like someone had dropped a brick
on my head from the top of a building. I think I'll be fine although, even
right now, my head is still kinda pounding and I had blood taste in my nose for
a while, haha.

Forgot to mention, but someone broke into the apartment
the other night. We're all okay and fine.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Hey!

So I turned 20 yesterday. Pretty cool. Didn't really do anything for it, but it was cool knowing that I've hit the 20s, haha.

Fun fact - the missionaries did a special musical number "La Oración del niño" ("A Child's Prayer," in english?). Anyway, we did it in English and Spanish and I did a nice little part with the recorder that I found earlier in my mission, haha. My first public musical performance, haha.

Also, President and Hermana Prince came down for the branch conference yesterday. It was cool. They both gave great talks. Pres Prince's was about when he unknowingly tried to pay for something with a false 20000 pesos bill and the person wouldn't accept it. He was like, "Well I don't even see the difference in size or letters or anything" and the person was like, "Sorry but the differences are there. That's not the bill accepted by the government." He compared it to baptism and how some other churches may perform baptisms similar to ours, but lack the proper priesthood authority from heaven. It was cool.

One of the 11 gringos that arrived at the same time as me in the mission is going home next week beause he got intestinal infection. Sucks for him. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me, haha.

Also there's a whole bunch of blocks and stuff going on between cities in Colombia. At this moment, no one can get in our out of Buenaventura. President Prince told us to go stock up on food today because if nothing can get in, food prices are gonna shoot up and were not gonna have any food here in the city. It's nuts!. I think all transfers have been canceled because no one can move around. I mean, I was gonna stay here anyway, but still it's nuts.

Information for mailing packages to Elder Chase

If you ship a package with a private courier, you will need this phone number 57 2-892-1709

This is the mission office address. You may mail letters and packages to this address.
To mail a letter of normal size and weight it costs 98 cents to mail it here.
You can use the church pouch mail for letters at the following address:

Elder Brandon Chase

Colombia Cali Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Pouch Mail Instructions: To prevent possible fines, only postcards and letters that are single sheet, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes) may be sent through the pouch. Packages cannot be sent through pouch mail.
I think using US Mail is less expensive and just fine...I would NOT use their priority shipping as it seems to be more expensive.
Here are some hints we have learned about the mail system to/from Colombia:
It is better to send things in padded envelopes rather than boxes.

If the packages weigh less than 2 kilos (about 4 lbs) they usually arrive without the missionary having to pay a fee to get it out of customs.

You should declare ANY package at a value LESS than about $20 to also avoid paying a customs fee.
Most letters and packages are taking about 14 or 15 days to arrive.
Our missionaries have to PAY ON TOP of what you have paid to ship...just to receive the package... IF it is too heavy or worth a lot. It is better to send 2 envelopes than to pay a lot and send a big box.
Mail leaving Colombia for the USA is VERY VERY expensive. I tried to mail a regular letter to my brother and they wanted 77 mil pesos or about 40 dollars to mail it. I did NOT mail it.
The best way to communicate with your missionary is via email.

If you want to put money on a debit card he brought with him....that is also an excellent gift.
Once a package arrives in the office it can take up to a month to get it out to the missionary as our mission is SO big and we have to wait until we can get it to the zone leaders at a conference.
If you want to send something for Christmas, plan accordingly for the time it might take and mark the package FOR CHRISTMAS.